Bumba

Family: Theraphosidae · Subfamily: Theraphosinae · Type species: Bumba cabocla (Pérez-Miles, 2000), by original designation — now a junior synonym of Bumba horrida (Schmidt, 1994)

Bumba is a genus of small-to-medium-bodied Neotropical tarantulas distributed across the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado, with one species extending into Paraguay. It is best known to the wider public for its type-locality species Bumba lennoni, named in honor of the musician John Lennon. The genus has a tangled nomenclatural history—it is the third name applied to the same lineage—and was most recently revised by Lucas, Passanha & Brescovit (2020), who clarified its composition and diagnosis. Bumba is not CITES-listed.

Nomenclatural history

The genus carries one of the more convoluted naming histories in theraphosid taxonomy. Pérez-Miles (2000) first erected Iracema for this lineage, but that name was preoccupied by Iracema Triques, 1996 (a fish). He replaced it with Maraca Pérez-Miles, 2005—which was itself preoccupied by Maraca Hebard, 1926 (a Neotropical cockroach). Finally, Pérez-Miles, Bonaldo & Miglio (2014) proposed Bumba as the valid replacement name, simultaneously describing the new species B. lennoni. The genus name references the Brazilian folkloric festival Boi-bumbá ("Bumba-meu-boi"), rooting the taxon in the Amazonian cultural landscape it inhabits.

Diagnosis and morphology

Bumba comprises comparatively small theraphosines. Following Lucas et al. (2020), the genus is diagnosed by a combination of characters: the presence of Type IV urticating setae on the abdomen; a retrolateral process on the male palpal tibia; a palpal bulb that rests in a ventral distal excavation of the palpal tibia; metatarsus I passing between the two branches of the tibial apophysis when flexed; and spiniform setae on the prolateral and retrolateral faces of the maxillae and of coxae I–IV. The 2020 revision added a further character—a denticulate row (a ridge of up to five teeth) in the median region of the inferior prolateral keel of the male palpal bulb. The denticulate row together with the retrolateral process on the male palpal tibia are proposed as putative synapomorphies uniting the genus. Like other theraphosines, Bumba are terrestrial, burrow-using, sit-and-wait predators that rely on kicked urticating setae as a primary defense against vertebrates.

Constituent species

Following the 2020 revision, the genus contains seven valid species, all South American:

Bumba horrida (Schmidt, 1994) — the senior name for the lineage anchoring the genus; the former type species B. cabocla (Pérez-Miles, 2000) is now treated as its junior synonym. Brazilian Amazonia.
Bumba lennoni Pérez-Miles, Bonaldo & Miglio, 2014 — described from Caxiuanã, Pará, Brazil; the species that brought the genus popular attention.
Bumba humile (Vellard, 1924) — transferred to Bumba (new combination) from Homoeomma and redescribed in 2020, with the female described for the first time.
Bumba tapajos Lucas, Passanha & Brescovit, 2020 — state of Pará, Brazil.
Bumba cuiaba Lucas, Passanha & Brescovit, 2020 — state of Mato Grosso, Brazil.
Bumba rondonia Lucas, Passanha & Brescovit, 2020 — state of Rondônia, Brazil.
Bumba mineiros Lucas, Passanha & Brescovit, 2020 — Cerrado of Goiás, Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul (Brazil) and adjacent Paraguay; the only species reaching beyond Brazil.

The 2020 revision also removed B. pulcherrimaklaasi (Schmidt, 1991) from the genus, transferring it to Cyclosternum Ausserer, 1871.

Distribution and ecology

Bumba occupies two major Brazilian biomes: the humid lowland forests of the Amazon basin (B. horrida, B. lennoni, B. tapajos, and others) and the seasonally dry savanna woodlands of the Cerrado (notably B. mineiros, which crosses into Paraguay). As terrestrial theraphosines, they shelter in burrows and crevices and ambush arthropod prey, with the Type IV urticating setae deployed defensively. The genus's broad spread across northern and central South America, combined with the small body size of its members and the historical scarcity of described material, means that several species are known from limited collections and that further taxonomic and distributional work is likely.

Conservation

Unlike the Mexican genera of the Brachypelma group, Bumba is not listed under CITES, and its species are not currently the focus of formal international trade regulation. As with most Neotropical tarantulas, the principal long-term pressures are habitat conversion—particularly deforestation in Amazonia and agricultural expansion across the Cerrado—rather than collection for the pet trade, in which the genus features only marginally.

Selected references

Pérez-Miles, F., Bonaldo, A. B. & Miglio, L. T. (2014). Bumba, a replacement name for Maraca Pérez-Miles, 2005 and Bumba lennoni, a new tarantula species from western Amazonia (Araneae, Theraphosidae, Theraphosinae). ZooKeys 448: 1–8.
Lucas, S. M., Passanha, V. & Brescovit, A. D. (2020). New combination and redescription of Bumba humile, description of four new species and new records from Brazil (Araneae: Theraphosidae: Theraphosinae). Zoologia 37: e46744, 1–17.
World Spider Catalog (current version). Natural History Museum Bern. https://wsc.nmbe.ch